[Day 1 – Late afternoon, open] Watchful.

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

Leaning to the railing, Iuchi Xiao Hua held his seefar occulum to his eye while he gazed out to the sea and beyond. The day had been beautiful, with the sun rising bright almost as soon as they had cleared the Sea of Shadows. The shugenja, while tired, felt much better. As the ship cut its way through the waves, the sea around singing in a joyous rapture.

After the long, dark days of fear and anguish, he felt as if he had been born again.

[Isawa O-Washi]

He wasn't the only one.

Rested, free of the maddening call of the Sea of Shadows, and recently washed, Isawa O-washi sauntered up from the aft stairwell, glancing up at the sky with a great grin on his face. "Konnichiwa, Iuchi-san! Damned nice weather, think I may go down from the Nest the fun way when the shift's over."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Ah, good afternoon, Isawa-gunso." he nodded to the man, dropping the artefact down to his lap before doing so. "Yes, the weather is very nice." the man added smiling.

"Ah, the fast way then." he chuckled. "I think I'll use the ropes the next time.."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"To each his own....I miss the touch of the sea, though."

Glancing at the odd object, O-washi asked, 'So...I've seen one of those before, on a Mantis ship...how'd you come to have one?"

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Not saying I am not going to take a dip. Just feel bit shaky after all that." he nodded. "Don't want to slam my head to the deck."

"Ah this." the man continued, raising the object. "Erm. The Fortunes favoured me in a game of dice with a Mantis sailor. In Shi... Kyuden Kumiko. Went there with my father."

[Isawa O-Washi]

Interest focused O-washi's gaze on the Unicorn's face instead of his strange tool.

"Oh? When was this, exactly?"

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"During the war." the man replied, somewhat grimly, referring to Khan's march. "Even when the armies march... commerce will go on." he chuckled. "We were escorting some of our heimin, well versed in such matters to there. I am... or was, merchant patron of sorts."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"I ask only because I was there in 1169 as part of the Legion guard." O-washi smiled and looked up, his eyes finding the shape of his eagle on his perch. "That's where I acquired Sensuifu."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

Iuchi chuckled. "It seems that Mantis have the access to all kinds of marvellous things."

"Ninth legion? I am not sure I remember seeing any of these ships there. Then again, we docked in the mercantile harbour."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"I wasn't in the Ninth Legion just then. I started my career with the Legion in the First. I think my Master wanted to try and keep me somewhat tamed by keeping me away from sailors."

O-washi snorted.

"Given how many Mantis were in residence in the capitol at that time, it rather failed. Not only were there ample sailors, there were ample bars, too. Between that and my dear friend Yasuki Kojiro's influence I think I got in even more trouble than I did on shore leave with my Clan's navy." A bark of laughter escaped the big man. "Which is, I must say, quite an accomplishment.'

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Ah, I see." he nodded. "That'd explains why I didn't see the ships of the ninth then."

Two years and already a gunso...

"Hee." he wasn't entirely sure how to comment on his story. He was his superior after all. "The place is certainly lively, especially after the sun sets." he chuckled. "As the Jade Sun goes down, and Obsidian moon raises, the Mantis start to pass out, it seemed."

"May I ask you, what made you to acquire such a magnificent beast?" the man added, nodding at his eagle. "I have to admit I have never seen anything like that before."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"What is meant to drive all Phoenix...respect for life and compassion."

The Phoenix's face softened. "He was a late hatchling and not quite fledged when his kin began to move southerly. He failed to make the journey and I found him with one leg broken and calling in vain for his kind as they flow on without him." The big man stared off into the distance, carefully averting his face lest it give away more than he wanted. "I wasn't quite as skilled with medicine then as now but I knew enough to set his leg and one of the locals, a Moshi, helped me with the rehabilitation. By spring, we'd formed a friendship."

Blue eyes glanced sidelong at the Unicorn.

"I suspect that your Clan, more than any other, understands that sort of bond."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"I do." he nodded, sighing. His trusted companion, a brown mare called Kumo was now safely tucked in the stables of the family estate. "I really do."

"Hee, so that kind of a story, then." he nodded. "Very noble of you." He didn't really know what else he could say.

[Isawa O-Washi]

"I suppose it sounds that way." O-washi chuckled. "So many tales of me sound better than they are...in part it was boredom, and an excuse to avoid certain events at the Court. I'm not at all suited for courtly life and I was eager to avoid being caught up in it."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Heh. We all have our vices." he nodded. "At least yours was noble, saving such a magnificent creature." He knew he was repeating himself, but was also unsure how to approach a jovial superior like the man before him.

"So, how you ended with the Ninth, if I may ask?"

[Isawa O-Washi]

"It's a funny thing, though it didn't seem it at the time." Turning so he could lean on the rail, the big gunso watched the Unicorn for his reaction as he talked. "It was just after my time at the Court and the time spent there had renewed my desire to return to sea. I started my career as a sailor with the Tsunami Legion right out of gempukku, you see, and spent a good amount of time that way, barring a few exceptions."

Just remembering how stifled he'd felt he sighed.

"I found myself thinking of it, constantly. I couldn't sleep back in the capitol for lack of the sound of waves. I was in a sorry state by summer and so I wrote home, begging Master Bairei for the right to go on Musha Shugyo so that I could return to the sea, perhaps fill that hole in my soul sufficiently to get by without it." O-washi chuckled. "Obviously, he said no..the position brought too much honor to our Clan in a time we sorely needed the political support. Instead, he had some of our more courtly kin pull some favors and next thing I knew I was promoted to nikutai and sent off to the Ninth."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Things are not always as they seem to be." he chuckled. "Tao tells us as much." Leaning to the rail as well, he continued. "I've spent time both on sea and land, but I can kid of understand the feeling. I get the same if I have to say indoors for a long time."

"You know Asako Bairei-sama." Iuchi gasped. As distant as his Clan was from the Empire at times, there were some names that every Iuchi recognized. Master of Water was one of them. "Ah... politics then." he huffed.

[Isawa O-Washi]

"Indeed. I'm a tensai, after all." Guessing this wouldn't necessarily mean much to a Unicorn, he hastened to explain. "Tensai are a very small group to start and once you break us down by element the number is smaller still. There are, oh, perhaps forty of us for each element alive and in service at any given time. He wasn't my sensei directly at any time, of course, but still I am known to him...as well I should be."

The Isawa's face lit up in a wry smile. "I'm a dreadful thorn in his side, after all. This is the first spring since he took office that I haven't been after him to let me go on a Pilgrimage."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Ah, so as a... Talent of Water, you trained with Asako-sama." Understanding dawning in his eyes. "I see. I guess I should have expected nothing less from the Phoenix." he nodded, smiling.

"Hee, why not send him a letter then, the next time we land to a port that's connected with the mainland?" His question was carefully placed. He had a rough idea of their destination, after all.

[Isawa O-Washi]

"I might, though after the recent troubles at home I'd feel guilty doing so." Reminded of the recent war, the smile left O-washi's face as if it had never been. "He's got enough to worry over without having a wayward tensai who wants to run off to join the Mantis to fuss over too."